historical Account_ of the _Birth_,
_Country_, _Lives_, _Deaths_, and _Burials_ of the _Gods_. This Work was
translated into _Latin_ by that arch Wag _Ennius_, who himself has most
ingeniously _ridicul'd_ several Impostors or very grave Persons, in a
remarkable Piece of Poetry, which I shall give my Reader in _English_.

"_I value not a Rush the_ Marsian _Augur,_
"_Nor Country-Fortune Tellers, nor Town-Star-Gazers,_
"_Nor jugling Gypsies, nor yet Dream-Interpreters:_
"_For, not by Skill or Art, are these Diviners;_
"_But superstitious Prophets, Guessers impudent,_
"_Or idle Rogues, or craz'd, or mere starving Beggars._
"_They know no way themselves, yet others would direct;_
"_And crave a Groat of those, to whom they promise Riches:_
"_Thence let them take the Groat, and give back all the rest._

XIX. Wherefore I cannot but presume, that an Attempt to make a _Law_ to
restrain _Irony_, &c. would prove abortive, and that the Attempt would be
deem'd the Effect of a very partial Consideration of things, and of
present Anger at a poor Jest; which Men are not able to bear themselves,
how much soever they abound in _Jests_, both of the _light_ and _cruel_
kind, on others: tho for my own part I concur heartily with you in
_making_ such a _Law_, and in leaving it to a Person of your _Equity_ to
draw it up, craving only the Liberty to propose an Amendment or Addition,
_viz._ that you would be pleas'd to insert a Clause to prevent _Irony_,
_Ridicule_, and _Banter_, from invading the Pulpit, and particularly to
prevent pointing out _Persons of Men_ [140] from thence, and reviling
them, as also reviling whole Bodies of Men: For whatever is immoral in
Print, is, in my Opinion, immoral in the Pulpit. Besides, these things
seem more improper in the Pulpit, than they can be in Print: because no
_Reprisals_ can be made in the former, as in the latter Case; where they,
or the Fear of them, may give some Check to the Disorder, and reduce
things to a tolerable Temper and Decency. If, in order to justify my
Motion, it could be thought necessary or proper here to give a Detail of
ridiculing and ironical Passages, taken from Sermons against particular
Men, and Bodies of Men, and their Doctrines, you cannot but know how easy
it would be to fill a Volume with them, without going to Authors, who have
occasionally produc'd abundance of them. And I will only mention here a
Passage in a _Volume of Sermons_, just now publish'd, o